


At the Moment

by tanarill



Series: Lifthrasr [2]
Category: Norse Religion & Lore
Genre: F/M, Family Feels, Genderfluid Character, Internalized Misogyny, M/M, Magic, Married Couple, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Mother-Son Relationship, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-16
Updated: 2007-06-16
Packaged: 2019-07-12 07:35:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15990620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tanarill/pseuds/tanarill
Summary: Then they got married, and there were lots and lots of babies. This happened shortly before Baby #1 (the one with the sword) arrived.





	At the Moment

The doorbell rang.  
  
Baldr, who was cooking, called out “I’ll get it,” before Loki could even begin to move. She was not, in truth, very unhappy about it. Baldr had, predictably, turned out to be the kind of husband that every woman wants during pregnancy and few ever get; the kind of husband who gives daily foot massages and would go to India to acquire real curries if he had the craving. (She had, and Baldr had somehow gotten Sleipnr away from Odin to go get some.) Earlier in her pregnancy, she’d been annoyed by all the attention. That had been then.  
  
But when Baldr opened the door, neither of them was expecting the person who was standing on the porch. She was short, red-eyed and white-haired, but carried herself with such presence that people very rarely remembered what she looked like later.  
  
“Hello, Baldr,” she said. “Hello, Loki.”  
  
“Thokk,” said Loki noncommittally.  
  
“Don’t ‘Thokk’ me, young woman. I am your _mother_. Thank you, Baldr,” she said, accepting Baldr’s automatically polite welcome as an empress accepting tithe. “And to answer your question, I am here to help with my grandchildren.”  
  
“You didn’t come to help with Sleipnr,” said Loki.  
  
“Sleipnr is _Sleipnr_. He didn’t need help getting out. And you were a _horse_ at the time. They’re better adapted to giving birth. This is going to be your first time giving birth to in a human-shaped body, and you’re going to need an experienced midwife.”  
  
“I’ll call one when the time comes,” said Loki acidly.  
  
“Er,” said Baldr, drawing two sets of currently-red eyes to look at him. “Thokk, why do you have four suitcases out here?”  
  
“Because they didn’t fit in the Bag,” replied Thokk, as if this were perfectly usual.  
  
“Didn’t fit in the–” began Loki. “Thokk. That is a _dwarf-crafted_ Bag! It holds _whatever_ you put in it. It doesn’t _get_ full. That’s part of the definition of a Bag. How did you manage to fill in it up?”  
  
“Without great difficulty.”  
  
“Do you have _any_ idea what I had to do to get that for you?”  
  
“You slept with some people, stole a few gems, and climbed a couple of mountains,” replied Thokk. “Oh, and tangled with a kobold, which is something I thought even _you_ were smart enough not to do until you did it. Baldr, help me with the bags, there’s a dear.”  
  
Loki glowered as Baldr helped his mother to get four heavy suitcases into their house–she had insisted on a house, because even if he wasn’t nearly as good at future - seeing as Thokk, she knew that there would be more children than would conveniently fit in a cottage – and then run off to keep dinner from burning. Thokk carried them the rest of the way to the guest room, complimenting Baldr the entire time on his house-keeping skills. There was silence for a while as Thokk unpacked. Then she came out, asking for a cup of tea, and Loki exploded.  
  
“Look, Thokk, please explain to me why you are troubling yourself to come here _now_ when you never much cared about me or my children before?”  
  
“Because _now_ ,” said Thokk, “you aren’t foisting the child off on whatever woman was unlucky enough to have attracted your attention. You’re my daughter, having her first child–Sleipnr doesn’t count–and you need your mother.”  
  
“I suppose it’s escaped your notice that I am your _son_?”  
  
Thokk looked Loki over in answer. As a woman, she was built very much along the lines of her mother, which was to say that she had wide hips, large breasts, and barely topped five feet standing. She was well into her seventh month of pregnancy now, and she practically glowed with it, her red hair falling in a shining cascade own her back. She was rubbing the stretched skin, unconsciously, in the way that pregnant women did.  
  
“I am your _son_ , no matter what sex I happen to be at the moment!” Loki screeched.  
  
There was an age of ringing silence after that, during which Baldr appeared with Thokk’s tea.  
  
“At the moment,” said Thokk firmly, “you are very much my daughter.”  
  
There was another silence, and then Loki began crying. Aesr, she _hated_ all these mood swings, all this sensitive crap that she had to put up with. Baldr was better at it, had always been better at it, and he was still a male.  
  
Then, suddenly, she was surrounded by warm arms, a loving embrace like she hadn’t felt, allowed herself to accept, since long before she’s left Muspelheim. “Shh,” said Thokk, rocking her daughter, who was at the moment as unsure as any first-time mother ever was and trying desperately not to show it. “I’m here. Everything’s going to be all right.”

**Author's Note:**

> I had a pretty good meeting today so I could get the ball rolling on both fall quarter and getting my degree. Have an (old) story.


End file.
